Broadcasting’s outstanding podcast: Tunesday Talks

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The Panoptic newspaper is a course for students to work on the online newspaper. For seniors, this class can count as their senior english course under the supervision of Coni Grebel (Faculty). Much like it, Brian Holt (Faculty) has created a course similar to it focused on Broadcasting. This course involves the use of equipment and journalistic practices to create content such as video interviews, websites and podcasts.

One outstanding podcast in particular is the Tunesday Talks show.

A four-man team of Keri Russel (12), Dalton Sheltra (12), Bailey Sutton (12) and Katelyn Schmidt (12) use advanced equipment to produce a program talking about and reviewing music every tuesday or “tunesday” as the show refers to it. The team has already put out a number of episodes, including top songs of 2017, top christmas songs and top five global songs as well.

The show’s format is comprised of three hosts (Russell, Sheltra, Sutton) reviewing music and talking about it with the producer (Schmidt) working behind the scenes by listening and editing to make sure everything goes well.

“I have always really loved music,” host Keri Russell (12) said. “it’s helped me through some of the hardest times in my life and really inspires my artwork. Dalton actually came up with the idea of a podcast because me and him used to talk about music a lot so naturally we decided to work together on it.”

“It has been eye opening,” host Dalton Sheltra (12) explains when asked about his experience with the podcast. “It’s something I am extremely passionate about and I work very hard on to make it the best it can possibly be. Being able to work alongside some of my best friends is amazing as well, and it brings you closer to them not only as friends but creatively as a team. Music is something that brings people together and it is an art form. The podcast has helped me discover new music, which is always awesome, and has helped me step out of my comfort zone and into the most amazing thing in the world, music.”

“The experience has been new and exciting,” said host Bailey Sutton (12). “There is lots of learning involved and I’ve gained a feeling of achievement from knowledge I’ve gained. Sutton has described the learning process, saying “I’ve had to learn how to set up equipment and write scripts. I’d definitely say the number one thing is how to talk to others comfortably in a recorded session.”

Being a producer is a significantly different job than the hosts, as they need to be focused while listening to the audio and while editing. Katelyn Schmidt (12) describes it as “pretty cool. Listening to the same thing over and over again for hours at a time can be boring but the end product is always worth it. Being able to go back and listen to the entire podcast without stopping makes the many hours worth it.”

It’s no lie that the team hasn’t had any issues with the podcast, but they are constantly refining their process with every episode. After completion of every recording they come together and discuss what they can do better for the next show.

Photo by J. Klein

Russel says “We’ve had a lot of issues with the sound and overall format. But we are working on it, I really think we are heading in a good direction. Future episodes will be better than ever and we will continue to improve every episode.”

“I do think the podcast will get better,” Sutton adds. “With every recording we hear ways we can improve our episodes and grow as a team.”

Overall, the team sees good things for the future of their podcast. With more equipment and better practices being implemented, the entertaining podcast will only get better.

Sheltra explains his outlook on the future of the show, saying “Hopefully we can continue to grow this podcast to be as big as it can be. It is such an amazing thing to create a product that people appreciate and listen to and we want to continue to grow our fanbase and make improvements to the product as we go.”

The podcast is available on their Soundcloud account and through their website.